Completed Projects

Findings from the ACT Acorn project, completed in early 2019, guided development of the Acorn project – a low-cost carbon capture and storage (CCS) system in north east Scotland – from proof-of-concept towards design studies. ACT Acorn, which involved researchers and professional staff from SCCS, built on previous research, such as an appraisal of potential North Sea CO₂ storage sites and options to re-use oil and gas assets.

Our work aimed at informing some of the gaps in the research and development landscape. It also explored a variety of build-out options from the St Fergus CCS hub to create a regional CCS network in Scotland, influence developments in other North Sea regions and lead the way for CCS development at mature oil and gas fields worldwide.

ACT Acorn was funded by the Accelerating CCS technologies (ACT) co-fund of ERA-NET under the Horizon 2020 programme.

This ETI-funded project aimed to assess the potential for brine production through dedicated wells in target CO₂ storage formations to increase CO₂ storage capacity and security, and to reduce overall cost of storage.

Heriot-Watt University and Element Energy carried out the study with support from the SCCS Secretariat. Durham University and T2 Petroleum Technology also participated in the project. It built on earlier CCS research work and helped develop understanding of potential CO₂ stores, such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs or saline aquifers, located beneath UK waters.
 

The SCCS CO2MultiStore Joint Industry Project was an innovative study of rocks beneath the North Sea, which predicted that the secure and permanent storage of CO₂ within a single geological storage formation could be optimised by injecting at more than one point simultaneously.

The research, which focused on a North Sea case study (the Captain Sandstone) and used cutting-edge methods, was conducted by scientists within the SCCS partnership and prospective site operators. Their findings will help to unlock an immense CO₂ storage resource underlying all sectors of the North Sea for the storage of Europe’s carbon emissions.

The SCCS CO₂-EOR Joint Industry Project was a collaborative programme of work to develop an understanding of CO₂-Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), with the aim of creating a commercial use for CO₂ captured from power plants and industry. The project was led by SCCS partners and funding was been provided by the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, 2Co Energy Limited, Nexen and Shell.

The project focused on issues of major importance to project developers looking to link CO₂-EOR in the North Sea with CCS projects and produced 17 detailed reports covering a wide variety of topics.

The CASSEM project brought together the experience and different working practices of utilities, offshore operators, engineering contractors, and academic researchers to build collective understanding and develop expertise. CASSEM produced both new scientific knowledge and detailed insight into the CCS industry, developing best-value methods for the evaluation of saline aquifer formations for CO₂ storage.

The project identified areas of industry and research community uncertainty to enable targeted investment of resource to reduce overall project risk. An open access, flexible full- chain costing model was developed allowing the CCS community to assess and explore overall costs. CASSEM's work also included the first use of citizen panels in the regions investigated for storage to assess public perception and educate the general public about CCS.